Stock Market & Financial Investment News

Ericsson files patent infringement action against Samsung Ericsson (ERIC) has filed a lawsuit in the U.S against Samsung (SSNLF) for infringing its patents, after nearly two years of negotiations failed to reach an agreement. The dispute concerns both Ericsson's patented technology that is essential to several telecommunications and networking standards used by Samsung's products as well as other of Ericsson's patented inventions that are frequently implemented in wireless and consumer electronics products. Ericsson has concluded that it has no option other than legal action after negotiations have not been successful since Samsung has refused to take a license on FRAND terms. Ericsson helped to create the mobile telephone system by contributing hundreds of its inventions to the standard in exchange for a fair royalty. To date, Ericsson has signed more than 100 license agreements with all major players in the industry. In 2011 alone, Ericsson spent $5B on research and development.

Samsung allowed to halt Smartflash infringement proceedings, Reuters reportsThe U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled that Samsung (SSNLF) can halt patent infringement proceedings brought by Smartflash while the patents are examined by the USPTO, Reuters reports. The court also declined to stay the Smartflash case against Apple (AAPL), the report says. Reference Link

Samsung sees Q3 smartphone demand growing slightly vs. Q2Samsung expects Q2 smartphone demand to grow slightly quarter-over-quarter. The company expects "solid mobile and server demand due to seasonality and launch of new products." It adds, "Despite downside risk in LCD, expect overall earnings to remain at a similar level to the previous quarter due to improvement in OLED."

MasterCard, Samsung extends partnership to deliver Samsung Pay in EuropeMasterCard (MA) and Samsung (SSNLF) announced they are extending their global partnership leveraging the MasterCard Digital Enablement Service to deliver Samsung Pay in Europe. Samsung Pay is a mobile payment service that will enable consumers to use their Samsung flagship mobile devices to make every day in-store purchases at contactless and magnetic stripe terminals leveraging NFC and MST technologies.

Samsung Bioepis plans to list on Nasdaq by end of Q2, Reuters reportsSamsung Group's biosimilar drug development subsidiary, Samsung Bioepis, is expected to select advisers to list in the U.S. by the middle of August and plans to debut on the Nasdaq by the end of Q2, Reuters reports. A spokesperson for Bioepis says the exact timing or size of the listing has not yet been decided, but notes that if the company is valued at 8T won-10T won, or $6.87B-$8.59B, and lists 10%-20% of shares, an IPO could raise up to 2T won. Reference Link

Samsung most popular smartphone maker in Q2, TrendForce saysSamsung (SSNLF) was the most popular smartphone maker in the second quarter, even though the smartphone market has started to slow down, according to data from research firm TrendForce. Smartphone shipments will grow 8.2% year over year in 2015, though that's down from the previously anticipated growth rate of 11.6%, the report says. Samsung has led in smartphone shipments with a second-quarter growth of 26.8%. However, Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge's annual shipment forecast has been marked down repeatedly. TrendForce has also revised Samsung's annual smartphone shipments downwards to 45M units this year. As Chinese vendors are taking more shares of the low- to mid-range product market, Samsung's ability to reverse its fortune may hinge on the success of its Galaxy Note 5. If this device is able to attract consumers with upgraded specs and new features, then Samsung will avoid the high possibility of negative shipment growth for this year. Apple (AAPL) rode on the popularity of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in this year's first half and achieved a remarkably strong shipment result in the off-peak season. The next-generation iPhone due to be launched this year offers no major changes in appearance, but Apple has given the device a new A9 processor and upgraded its memory to 2GB LPDDR4 for the first time. These improvements along with the Force Touch module and a camera featuring a possible resolution of 12MP will give the next iPhone a huge boost. Thus, TrendForce's iPhone shipment forecast for this year continues to be very positive with a high growth of 15% upwards. Lenovo (LNVGY) has fallen to No. 6 in the global shipment ranking and is expected to see a 20%-30% decline in this year's shipments. Lenovo's market share did not double as anticipated after its takeover of Motorola in 2014. Moreover, Lenovo did not have a well-defined product positioning strategy and the brand faced strong competition from challengers offering lower-priced smartphone models.